The CDC now lists nine potential symptoms of COVID-19, though cough and shortness of breath or difficulty breathing remain hallmarks of the disease. CDC says individuals may have COVID-19 if they experience these two symptoms plus at least two of the following:

• Fever
• Chills
• Repeated shaking with chills
• Muscle pain
• Headache
• Sore throat 
• New loss of taste or smell.

CDC notes that the updated list is not all inclusive. It does not include cutaneous symptoms of the disease, which are increasingly being reported in the US and around the world. Italian medical professionals noted cutaneous manifestations of COVID-19 in many patients there. Dr. Sebastiano Recalcati, a dermatologist in Lombardy, Italy published his observations in the Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology Venereology and discussed them with Practical Dermatology® magazine.

Consistent with global trends, data from the CDC show that rates of hospitalization for COVID-19 increase with age. At the time of data analysis, 74.5 percent of patients who had been hospitalized were aged ≥50 years, and 54.4 percent were male.

Data from hospitalizations in March suggest a concerning trend in which non-Hispanic black people are disproportionately hospitalized for COVID-19. Although these individuals account for just 18 percent of the population in reporting counties, they account for 33 percent of hospitalizations.

Data continue to indicate that the infection curve is flattening, even as the Johns Hopkins University and Medicine Coronavirus Resource Center now counts 3,060,152 global cases of COVID-19. 

Despite flattening, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), an independent population health research center at UW Medicine at the University of Washington, has slightly increased its estimate for daily deaths on May 1 from 855 as of this time last week to 1,263 daily deaths in today's estimate. IHME says the US has passed the peak of resource utilization nationally.